Until he meets the proprietor of Snowy Ridge Apple Orchard, Felix Hansen. Suddenly, true love seems like a possibility for the first time in Bowen’s life. The two are a perfect match and fill the skipped beats of each other’s hearts. But as wonderful as Felix seems, he’s harboring scars that could end their budding relationship when someone in town goes to great lengths to sabotage their careers.
If Bowen is to survive the holidays, he’ll need to lean on old friends and new, convince Felix he’s worth any hardship, and prove they can come out of the catastrophe stronger if they do so together.
I fell in love with Bowen immediately upon meeting him. How can I not love a snappy, snarky, toppy ginger who dresses fabulously and teaches music? Then I met Felix and I fell in love again. How can I not love a handsome, quiet, lumberjack-looking walking wet dream? Then these two came together and I knew this book was written just for me.
The evolution of their relationship was a treat to read. On paper they’re opposites and really shouldn’t have anything in common, but they were the kind of opposites that are more like puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly. They had so many little moments as they got to know one another and those are my favorite parts of character driven romances. The pace was ideal, especially given Felix’s history. They had to ease into their togetherness, anything else would have read false. More of Felix’s hurtful past is revealed and it’s heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time and the hope is all because of Bowen. Bowen was truly a Felix whisperer and reading about Felix coming out of his shell made my Christmas heart happy.
The secondary characters gave the MC’s extra depth that boosted my love for this story. Felix’s son was so well written. I can attest how rewarding it is to live with a teenage boy so writing a believable one is a gift. Especially one like Alan. He’s a typical teenager, but he’s also a gifted musician and he lives with misplaced guilt because of what he and Felix have been through. He’s protective of his dad and has a lot of respect for Bowen so I really enjoyed reading their relationship grow as well. Bo’s BFF Scarlet is awesome and the two of them were meant to be BFF’s just as much as Bo was meant to be with Felix. The little snippet of how they met as kids was adorable.
This author is a master of chemistry (you know what I’m saying if you’ve read the Snow and Winter books) and man, do these two have the heat in spades. I LOVED reading the buildup as they slowly discover just how well they are matched up in their kink spaces. Not that it’s kinky per se, but you know how delicious it is when characters have neeeeeds and they meet their perfect match who has complimentary neeeeeeds? That’s what this is. It takes preconceived notions about what someone should like because of how they look and chucks it out the window, making it quite the compelling and steamy read and solidifying the connection between Bo and Felix.
I would have been all over giving this one five stars but the last quarter didn’t pace the same as the first three quarters of it. Shenanigans happened and things ramped up really fast, resolved quickly and then . . . HEA, it was a little jarring and I felt like Bo and Felix were taken away from me for a bit and I didn’t want that. I would have been fine without the outside craziness or the craziness turned down a smidge, or paced differently or something. But then it would have had to have been considerably longer and would have taken me away from Bo and Felix even more, and that’s not an answer I would have been happy with either. The resulting feels from the town were great and I loved the love there, I just could have done with everything be a little less at that point.
All that being said . . . Bo and Felix, I heart you. I love your Christmassy lives and your delicious chemistry. I would love to read more about you, so if you could whisper in your author’s ear, it would be much appreciated. Thankyouverymuch.
**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**
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